New Glarus Unplugged Cherry Stout

Formerly brewed at New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Bottle from trade with Monger. Pours a dark brown color with a slight reddish tint and an even, thin, light tan head. Sharp signature New Glarus cherry aromas with some oaky tartness and a sweet spiciness akin to cinnamon or nutmeg. Taste starts off with a tart stab, the cherry flavor comes through most in the middle, and the finish is dry. No real traditional stout characteristics present, more like a dark version of Belgian Red. And that’s good.

Pours a cloudy, dark maroon with almost no head. Bubbly around the edges. Really interesting smell, almost like a cough drop or some spicy cinnamon candy. Very sharp, some cherry blended into all those aromas. Taste is a little more sour than I was expecting. Nothing ridiculous, but somewhat acidic. Cherry seems to be the most dominant flavor. Tough to call it a stout, it tastes more like a mild cherry lambic. Kind of thick and a little creamy, get the slightest touch of vanilla. Really cool taste, the finish is really smooth with a nice blend of cherries and tartness. Well done.

Dark brown beer with some mahogany hues when held up to the light. Short lived foamy brown head with tinges of pink. The nose is an odd mix of tart cherry, vanilla and wood tones, mixed with something like play-doh. The tartness is very strong in this beer. The cherry flavor is very natural, like fresh cherries. Some sweet tart candy, and almost sour patch kids contrast between sweet and sour. The stout is under there, with some chocolate and a hint of roasted grain, but it is a shadow compared to the bright fruit. It is not easy to make a good cherry beer, and most brewers are not subtle enough to pull it off. New Glarus does it very well, avoiding the nasty artificial flavors that mar many fruit beer attempts. As kujo says, it does improve as it warms. A very nice fruit beer.

Sample at Indy tasting Hotshotz - Aroma of tart cherries and roasted dark malts. Pours black with a small head and good lacing. Flavor primarily tasty dark cherries followed by the roasted malts. Definitely unique! Palate is tart and sweet. I think a whole bottle would be nice.

12 oz bottle sampled @ RB Cleveland gathering 3/10/07: Dark brown/black w/ a light tan head. Initial aroma is soy sauce/worchestershire sauce , turns to smokey cherry w/ some chocolate. Flavor starts out sweet metallic, turns to cherry & chocolate as it warms w/ a medium tartness. Semi sweet finish. Medium body, low carbonation, well hidden alcohol. This beer definitely gets better as it warms! Very metallic and soy sauce flavored until it rests a bit.

Pours a dark, dark brown, through which no light passes. The head is thin with an offwhite color. The aroma is dominated by mashed fermenting cherries, molasses, and a subtle yeast character. The flavor is probably the strangest thing I have ever tasted. When you look at it, you expect the normal roasty chocolatey goodness of your run of the mill stout, but, instead you are blasted with a very strong taste that can only be described as the exact taste of drug store chocolate covered cherries. Afterwards, there is a pleseantly sour aftertaste that you feel all over your mouth. Very loooooooong finish. The mouthfeel is difficult to describe, but definitely pleseant. Delicous, overall, and very remarkable.

Sampled at March Indy RB gathering. Umm, yummy. Really not what I was expecting, but quite nice despite that. Pours like a nice dark stout as would be expected. Black with a tan head. From that point on though, it really doesn’t match up as a stout. The aroma is largely a sweet and slightly tart cherry with malt hints underneath. I was expecting more roasted malt in the aroma but the sweet cherry took control. The flavor was where I was most surprised. It was full of the same jammy sweet but somewhat tart cherry flavors that the NG Belgian Red brings. After taking a little time to reset due to the surprise in flavor I did notice mild malt beneath the powerful cherry experience. A unique and plesantly surprising experience.

Bottle courtesy of Naven. More like a heavily malted lambic than a stout. Very nice, sweet, drinkable. NG knows how to do fruit beers.